In Tennessee, October is an iffy time for gardening and the weather-guessers don’t offer much help. During the summer their inaccuracies may mean having to water on a day we didn’t plan to, but little else. In October a new foe comes a-calling: frost.
Some of the crops in my garden will handle frost just fine: lettuce, spinach, Brussels sprouts, onions, garlic to name a few. These will grow just fine on into the winter. But the last of the summer crops are not so hardy.
I still have tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, red potatoes and sweet potatoes growing heartily and producing. I hate to rip these out for fear of a frost that dos not come, then get an additional two weeks of Indian summer where more of those items would have ripened. I still have two flats of green tomato relish canned up from last year’s frost aversion.
So I keep covers handy: bed sheets, light blankets, plastic sheeting all work well. I keep a box of spring clamps in the barn as well to secure these to my box frames. Until we get an actual freeze, this will keep the plants alive by keeping the frozen dew off the plants. Play it safe: cover up anytime a frost is possible. (Read More…)
If you are thinking about acquiring a furry companion, pet rescues and shelters are filled with animals waiting to be adopted. Giving a new forever home to a rescued pet is a big decision. You want to give him a loving home and the best care possible. Pet adoption is lots of fun, but it does take planning and research.
You may ask yourself: How does it work? How do you choose the right pet? Where can I find a rescue or shelter near me? How does the adoption process work? The folks at HomeoAnimal.com know you’ve got many questions on adoption, and have put the answers together for you! They have created “The Ultimate Guide To Pet Adoption”. This guide is comprised of articles that will teach you everything you need to know Continue reading “Ultimate Guide to Pet Adoption”
When it comes to deterring garden damaging insects, we can employ chemical agents, we can employ companion plants, or we can invite predatory critters. By chemical agents, I do not mean just the commercially produced poisons (which I avoid) but things like Neem oil and pepper spray made from my jalapeno and cayenne cast-offs.
This year I companion planted borage with my tomatoes. That worked exceptionally well. My only mistake was in planting them at the same time: I should have given the tomatoes a month’s head start. By the time the tomatoes were bearing ripe fruit, the borage was dying off. Shortly after it was gone, the hornworms started appearing. But I still had help.
When I find a hornworm that is covered by white cases, I either leave it be or move it to a sacrificial tomato plant so the pupae it carries will mature and hatch. These are pupae cases of the Brachonid Wasp: a small, non-stinging, parasitic wasp that favors hornworms as the preferred meal for its young. The female Brachonid deposits its eggs just under the skin of the hornworm. When they hatch the larvae chew their way out (feeding on the worm as they go) and spin those white pupae cases. By the time you see those, especially if there are lots of them, the hornworm is in a weakened state. Many that I find in this condition will do little more damage, some never move from that spot.
Every generation looks backward as the world marches resolutely forward and pines for The Good Old Days. However, those old days were not always as good as we like to think. Even modern Good Old Days had their drawbacks, but as we go further back we find life was not always as pleasant as the romanticized books and movies make them out to be. Here are just a few examples of life in the 1500’s which explain the origins of some of our idioms. Continue reading “The Good Old Days”
My pepper plants are doing very well this year. Last year they were disappointing, but they like the conditions we’ve had this year – and maybe the composted chicken poo I mixed into the soil helps. Marie and I like jalapenos and use them in cooking a variety of dishes. Banana pepper rings are great as sandwich peppers and can be used in soups, casseroles and stews. I’m about to put up a batch of peppers for use through the winter and next spring. Want to watch?
Peppers can be preserved by freezing, dehydrating or canning. If canned, they can be pickled and water-bathed, or pressure canned in water. I’m going to can these. Pressure canning means cooking them at a high temperature for a longer time, and results in a mushier end product, so I’ll pickle this batch in a vinegar brine.
If I were going to can them whole or cut them into long strips, I’d blister them first and remove the skins. But putting them up as rings sidesteps the need for that.
What You Need:
• 6 pounds of peppers
• A fist of garlic (only for the banana peppers)
• A sharp knife
• 10 pint jars with lids and bands
• 1 stainless steel or enamelware pot for heating the brine
• A large pot or canner
• A canning tool kit is very helpful, but you can do this without it.
Brine:
• 10 cups white vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 8 teaspoons pickling salt (pickling salt has no iodine added, Kosher salt works too)
• 6 teaspoons Truvia (or 4 tablespoons sugar)
The Process:
Core and slice your peppers into bowls. I’m doing jalapenos and bananas so I keep them separate, but the recipe and processing is the same so they can all be canned in one batch.
Coring a banana pepper is easy: cut through just the pepper flesh all the way around the shoulder but not into the core. Now grab the stem and give it a gentle, rotary wiggle. That will break the webbing, and the core – complete with seeds – will slide right out.
For jalapenos, core them if you want, but keep the seeds to be included with the peppers. A lot of the heat is in the seeds, to keep their heat, include the seeds.
Put your jars into the canner (or large pot), cover with water, and sterilize by boiling for 10 minutes (more if you are above 1,000 feet of elevation). Do the lids too.
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In the stock pot combine the vinegar, water, sweetener and salt (note the salt is not a preservative but for flavor enhancement; you may omit it if you want). Heat this mixture just to boiling, then reduce the heat to maintain an easy simmer just to keep it hot.
Remove the jars one at a time with your jar grabber (found in that oh-so-handy canning tool set) and dump the water out of the jar into the sink. Fill the jar with pepper rings. If this jar is banana peppers, put a clove of garlic in the bottom first. Don’t waste your garlic on the jalapenos, you won’t taste it anyway. Go for a “firm fill” of the rings. Too loose and you’ll have little product in the jar and will run short of brine. Too tight and the rings break and become strips. Some people are kind of obsessive about having rings, so don’t mash them in too tight.
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Install your jar funnel (tool kit) and ladle in hot brine. You will want 1/2 inch of head space (air space above the liquid) so stop ladling a little short of that. Remove the funnel. Use a thin implement (I use an orange peeler, but anything you have on hand will do) to slide down the sides of the jar to jostle the rings a bit and dislodge any trapped air bubbles. Now top off the brine to achieve the 1/2-inch head space.
Wipe the rim with a clean paper towel or cloth, install a lid and a band and tighten just until finger tight. Guys, this is not the time to display your inhuman strength; just barely snug it up. Put this jar back in the canner and repeat.
If you run a little short on brine, top up that last jar with some straight vinegar.
When they are all filled, turn up the heat under the canner and bring to a boil. Start timing when you have a good rolling boil going. Process for at least 10 minutes: more if you are at a higher elevation. I do mine for 13 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let the canner cool down a bit.
Remove the jars from the water. Be careful not to clank the jars into each other or the canner; they have an unfortunate tendency to explode right now. Be gentle and set them on a tea-towel-protected counter top to cool. Leave plenty of air space between them. Let them cool for a good 30 minutes.
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You should hear the lids plinking as the vacuum builds inside the cooling jars and the lids seal. That’s a good thing, it means you have done well.
After the jars have cooled so you can touch them, test all the lids. They should be sucked down tight so they don’t move or make noise when you press on the center of the lid. If it makes a plink-plonk sound when you press and release it, move that jar to the fridge and eat it first (give them two weeks to pickle). Those that sealed can be labeled, moved to your canned foods shelves, and put into long-term storage.
Celebrate National Mutt Day in the USA on July 31 and December 2. This is a fun celebration of mixed breed dogs. Created in 2005 by celebrity pet and family life expert, Colleen Paige, National Mutt Day brings awareness to the plight of mixed breed dogs in shelters around the country and encourages people to adopt shelter dogs rather than buy “designer dogs” from puppy mills.
For years now I have done battle with the tomato hornworm. You know Hornworm: big, green brute with a spiky horn on his butt. Sort of a cross between a backward rhinoceros and The Hulk. He can get to be 4 inches long and will decimate a tomato plant overnight.
In the past I’ve used a number of methods to try to keep this marauder at bay.
• Sevin Powder: works pretty well but is a chemical insecticide.
• Neem oil: works pretty well and is a natural repellent, but has to be reapplied after every rainfall.
• Hand picking: It is harder than one might think to spot these well-camouflaged beasties. Even as big as they get, they can be hard to see in amongst the leaves. I look mostly for the leaf damage and poo-pellets they leave, then go hunting in that region.
• Braconid Wasp: a natural control in that these iridescent blue wasps lay their eggs on the hornworm and when the eggs hatch, they feed on the form and kill it. When I find a worm packing a load of eggs on its back I move that one to a sacrificial plant where it can live out its life and help proliferate the Braconids. I’ve never been stung by a Braconid despite having them nest in my barn eaves. I consider them good fellows and welcome them.
• Bacillus thuringiensis: a naturally occurring bacterium that attacks the digestive systems of numerous leaf-feeders, including hornworms. It is available in spray or powder form under the trade names of Dipel and Thuricide.
This year I tried a new weapon: Borage. Read More…
The dog we commonly refer to as the Pit Bull was developed in England from a cross between the English Bulldog and terriers. The exact terrier breeds used to create this cross is not clearly recorded, but popular opinion points to the White English Terrier, the Black-and-Tan Terrier and the Fox Terrier. The result of these combinations became known as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier and were used to manage cattle and by hunters to help hold wild boar and other game.
As time passed, the breed entered the blood-sport of bull and bear baiting. After these sports were outlawed in England around 1835, dog fighting rings took their place. Dogs were forced to fight one another to the death in hidden arenas called “pits.” The Staffordshire Bull Terrier was highly successful in the fighting ring because of its tenacity, courage, stamina, strength and intelligence. Equally important was its loyal, non-aggressive and responsive nature with people. Fighting dogs were expected to be obedient, trustworthy and easily handled by their owners at all times. Because of their popularity in dog fighting pits the breed became known as “Pit Bulls”.
If you are like me, there are two main battles that I fight in growing a vegetable garden: weather and pests.
Weather, we cannot do much about. We take our best guess as to when that last frost will sneak in, and have empty containers and straw on hand to use as protection in case we’re wrong. We can water when it’s dry, use raised beds if it’s too wet, have sulfur, milk and Neem oil on hand to ward off blight and fungus. But other than growing in the controlled environment of a greenhouse, we cannot control the weather: we just deal with it.
Pests, we have a little more control over. How much control depends on how far we are willing to go. If we’re willing to saturate our food in poisons, we can achieve a high degree of efficiency against insects. I, for one, prefer to avoid poisons that can have a deleterious effect on my family and me. Fortunately, there are other ways.
Here are a few of the things I do in my garden to help ward off insects and other pests. Read More…
Spring has sprung, the rains have come, and now it’s time to get seed in the ground. But before planting those precious seeds into the warming earth, we want to be sure we have prepared for them a safe and healthy home.
One of the advantages of using a raised bed garden is that you can individually tailor the soil in each box to the needs of the plants you will put there. A pH meter or test kit is a handy tool to have. Sulfur and lime can be used to adjust pH up or down as needed. Compost adds organic matter and nutrients. Sand increases drainage; vermiculite retains the water. Straw, wood chips, newspaper, cardboard, and grass clippings can all be used as a mulch to retain moisture and deter weeds.
In addition to the soil they grow in, some plants do better with some structure to their lives.
Here I’ve put a trellis panel in the center of a garden box. In the far front is the last of my winter spinach; a new crop has been seeded and will soon be taking the place of the current plants as they lose their vitality. Just in front of the trellis I’m planting cucumbers. Behind the trellis is lettuce. Right now the sun shines through the trellis to encourage the lettuce to grow in our cool spring days. As spring turns to the heat of summer, cucumber vines will climb up the trellis and provide shade for the lettuce and extend its growing season into the summer.
Pests, we have a little more control over. How much control depends on how far we are willing to go. If we’re willing to saturate our food in poisons, we can achieve a high degree of efficiency against insects. I, for one, prefer to avoid poisons that can have a deleterious effect on my family and me. Fortunately, there are other ways.